Startup of the Day – Criteo

The company of the day is Criteo, based in USA, France, UK, Germany and Italy. Criteo is a company specialized in personalized retargeting. You will find below an interview with JB Rudelle, the Founder and CEO of Criteo. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Interview with JB Rudelle, the Founder and CEO of Criteo

Who are you?

My name is JB Rudelle. I’m the Founder and CEO of Criteo, a company specialized in personalized retargeting.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘company of the day’ per Microsoft?

Very pleased indeed. Microsoft has always been a great business partner for us.

What did you do before creating your company?

I was the founder and CEO of K-Mobile Kiwee. In the years 2000s, this company rapidly became a leader in the emerging ringtone market in Europe. Lots of fun. The company was acquired by American Greetings in 2004.

How did you get the idea? What s the genesis?

The online advertising display market is on the edge of a revolution. This revolution will be driven by technology and we have developed a break-through technology.

What do you sell? What is your company’s mission?

Criteo delivers mass-market personalized retargeting – today primarily for online merchants. This allows merchants to re-engage with every visitor to their site, via display ads across the Internet. Criteo shows the right ad, to the right person, at the right time. In many cases this means merchants are acquiring traffic to their site via display advertising for the very first time.

What is your market?

Basically anyone buying keywords on search engines should engage into retargeting at some point.

Any clients? References? Partners?

In the last year, we have built a portfolio of more than 200 clients including many of the largest e-commerce merchants across Europe.

Funding history? VCs? BA?

We are backed by Index Ventures (backers of Skype), AGF and Elaia. Total funding to date is $18 million.

Growth? Internationalization?

The business has started in France, where the historic team is based. Since then, it has expanded aggressively across Europe (UK, Germany, Italy) and now the US.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

We have 60 employees including 20 developers.

Are you hiring? If yes, what? Where?

YES! We are seeking very special persons for our global headquarters based in our Palo Alto, CA. The right candidates will grasp the major changes that are taking place in the US online advertising market. If you…

– are professional about doing business, with great commercial skills and energy

– understand the online advertising business and how a highly efficient ad technology can have a huge impact on the market

– are looking for an exciting challenge to demonstrate your real potential in an ultra fast growing company – are happy, but with the right opportunity could be even happier

– have the skills and enthusiasm to join our amazing team

– are willing to roll up your sleeves to convince major advertisers to work with the most exciting new ad solution in the market

– want more excitement, challenges and rewards for your efforts

… then you might be the person we are looking for! In this position, you will have the rare opportunity to join the new headquarters of the most promising advertising technology since the invention of SEM. We work hard, play hard and we all share the same passion for e-commerce, advertising and technology. Our values are team work, openness, technical innovation, and results-orientated thinking. The Criteo corporate culture is all about attracting and retaining the best talent. Criteo is a great opportunity for a self-motivated, proven business closer with an excellent track record for hitting targets. We aim to reward excellence so there are fantastic opportunities for the right candidate.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

Our platform is all Microsoft. It offers great development tools.

Do you have any Software IP? Is there something that you’re the only one to do on the market?

We have a patent pending technology. Our personalized retargeting solution is unique on the market.

Who’s your role model?

Bill Gates. He has made a lot of money, but later on, he decided to put his fortune in a foundation to help others.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet areas?

There are just plenty around. Internet revolution is just at its beginning.

Looking for funding? If yes, how much?

We don’t need any funding. However, some US smart money could help us to accelerate our US expansion.

What about the BizSpark Program? What do you think? Are you going to join? Why?

Great program. It’s good that Microsoft is helping start-ups to gain more visibility.

Any advice to young Software entrepreneurs?

Don’t think you can do everything on your own. Recruit talents smarter than you and… never give up!

Anything else you’d like to say?

Have a look at our website: www.criteo.com. Boost your career prospects. Send us your resume to jobs@criteo.com, and start feeling great about what you do.